High-Frequency Update: 4-13-25
Arizona new business applications spiked in March
Arizona initial claims for unemployment insurance ticked up to 3,602 for the week ended April 5, up from 3,258 the prior week. That was down 15.7% over the year and down 28.4% from 2019.
U.S. initial claims for unemployment insurance bounced up to 215,392 for the week ended April 5, up from 200,057 the prior week. That was up 0.1% over the year and up 9.9% from 2019.
The U.S. hotel occupancy rate fell to 63.8% for the week ended April 5, down from 65.1% the prior week. That was down 0.5% over the year and down 7.1% from 2019.
U.S. movie box office sales spiked to $243.4 million for the week ended April 10, up from $102.4 million the prior week. That was up 116.2% over the year and up 26.4% from 2019. New movie releases were down 70.1% from 2019.
U.S. TSA traveler throughput fell to 17.1 million for the week ended April 5, down from 17.7 million the prior week. That was down 1.4% over the year but up 7.4% from 2019.
Weekly data on Arizona new business applications continue to be published by the Census Bureau, but only on a monthly basis. In March, weekly new business applications ranged from 1,100 to 720. A business application total of 1,100 was very high and represented an increase over the year of 59.4%.
Data on seated diners at restaurants using the OpenTable app is no longer being updated to compare the current week to 2019 results.
As of October 15, 2022, Google stopped updating mobility data.
Key News Articles and Research (subscription may be required)
Curated by Valorie Rice, Senior Business Information Specialist
Arizona and general topics: Why is the Federal Reserve independent, and what does that mean in practice? (Brookings 4/10)
Automation / AI: A new US manufacturing boom may bring more AI than jobs (CSM 3/28)
Demographic / socioeconomic / Census: Cutting Medicaid will harm both patients and state budgets (Governing)
Economy: Uncertainty shocks can trigger recessionary conditions (FRBSL 4/7)
Education / early childhood development: With enrollment dropping, colleges seek to recruit more Hispanics (Governing 4/10)
Energy / environment / infrastructure: Lawmakers fear AI data centers will drive up residents’ power bills (Stateline 4/10)
Housing / real estate: Building more homes isn’t enough to solve the housing crisis (Urban Inst 3/28)
Commercial real estate: Phoenix crane count drops; some project hit pause (PBJ 4/8)
Mexico/trade: Key takeaways on Trump’s reciprocal tariffs from recent Brookings event (Brookings 4/8)
Prices/inflation: Higher prices may be slow to come down even if tariffs go away, economists say (NPR 4/10)
Public finance: No state has axed its income tax on wages in 45 years. Now 2 Southern states are on a path to do so (AP 4/6)
Wages/income/wealth: Strong wage growth for low-wage workers bucks the historic trend (Econ Policy Inst 3/24)
Workforce/employment/labor market: What we know about veterans who work for the federal government (Pew 4/10)